Nissan put knee pads in the car they expect it to be driven HARD!

I e-mailed Nissan this week about the oil overheating issue and they replied with the same response that others have received:

"Thank you for contacting Nissan North America, Inc. and your interest in our 2009 370z. Thank you very much for your concern, this matter is currently under review at this time."

Jessie, the water wetter has nothing to do with helping to keep the water cooler, its purpose is to improve the heat transfer from the metal. This will actually make the water hotter quicker, but the water is easily cooled by the large radiator. Also on this engines the oil is indirectly cooled by the passing water (the oil and water passages are deliberately close to each other) so the better the water can transfer the heat the cooler the oil will stay.

Does the water get hot when the oil gets hot ?
If no, then water wetter is waste of time.

Very good point Joey - I'd worry about that too.

Well, you're welcome to not waste your money on it then. Assuming they aren't flat out lying through their teeth in the referenced PDF about their extended dyno test, I think their product has merit. I don't expect Redline to be lying about product testing, they're a pretty respectable company. Also, while I'm not well versed enough in thermodynamics or chemistry to really validate the rest of the PDF, nothing in it screams "snake oil" to me. If you'd like to debunk it with your own tests, feel free. Here's an independent test done by the guys at Import Tuner, too: Cooling Additives - Redline Water Wetter - Import Tuner Magazine

Edit: I just noticed that the linked test compares 50/50 water/glycol to 100% water with the water wetter added. That's probably not a very valid test, as water alone is known to cool better than water+glycol.

Right, but the whitepaper addresses that. In the test in the paper (not done by Redline, but by "Malcolm Garrett Racing Engines"), they ran a Chevy 350 w/ a 160 thermostat at 7200rpm for three hours straight in each of four coolant configurations and recorded the temperature the coolant stabilized at.

50/50 glycol/water: 228F
50/50 + water wetter: 220F
straight water: 220F
straight water + water wetter: 202F

There's no doubt that with or without water wetter, you get better cooling from straight water. I'm not willing to run straight water in my street car (although I may later move to 70/30 water/glycol), but it seems to have an effect even with a 50/50 mix.

This is interesting but it would have been better if they took water and oil temperature measurements. The real issue is how well the engine gets cooled, not what the water temperature is. Usually they go hand in hand but it's not a true measure of performance.

WaterWetter is not the answer - at best it's nothing more than a questionable patch to what seems to be a significant issue.

It's certainly not the answer to our oil temp problems, at least for those that are tracking their cars. I was just debating whether it's useful at all, versus the opinion that it's just junk.

I got my Stillen oil cooler in and have my mechanic installing next week. I will take some pictures for every one. Then I have a 2 track days later in the week, so I will probably drive it one of the two days, depends which of my friends are coming! lol

From Edmunds.com Long-Term Road Test of the 370Z comes this post:

2009 Nissan 370Z Touring: Oil Cooler Install and First Service | Long-Term Road Tests Blog on Edmunds' Inside Line

They said they had a Nissan recommended oil cooler installed at a dealer. This contradicts earlier posts of oil coolers voiding warranties or not available. Can I just demand my dealer install this when I buy my new Z?

Thanks for the link, that's very interesting. So they claim this kit was developed by Nissan, but is "aftermarket", and can't be bought from Nissan. Something fishy there, I think they didn't get good info on the source. I wonder who is making this kit, and why Nissan isn't at least releasing details about it (if not selling it). In any case it's a Setrab core, and it looks like it might be taller than the unit Stillen is using.

I'm certain most of you have seen this, but in the write-up by NissanSport magazine they claimed 3 options were in the works but still not completed at the time of publication: oil cooler, trans cooler, diff cooler. For whatever that's worth.

Awesome thread with a bunch of info!

I think you're referring to US Law, not California Law... everything you said is covered under the magnison-moss warranty act (of U.S. federal code)
Consumer Law: Warranty FAQ

ie anyone in US can make the same claim regardless of state... probably can be used as court argument in other common law countries too

but the reality is that nissan knows not everyone is going to take them to court, and their certainly willing to deny a claim if they think an aftermarket part somehow contributed to the failure of related parts... then it becomes a technical argument

remember that dealers are ALWAYS incented to do warranty work that is not obviously out of warranty... they will have approval levels up to ~$5K, and anything under that they can do at their discretion... they are reimbursed from the factory for the work they do, so the dealer is the least likely to turn you away... if they do, find another nissan dealer - dime a dozen

Brisk driving on Skyline Blvd. in Santa Clara this afternoon completely within the posted speed limit results in oil temps up to 290/300 and kicks in ECU limp mode...

2009 370Z all stock. Water temps appeared fine the whole time.

Car is going back to the dealer with a "chronic" oil over-heating problem.

This is NOT good! Thanks for reporting this. Can you also tell us how many miles are on your 370Z?

+Rep point

That really sucks ! maybe if nissan sees a few cars come back they'll expedite a solution... GL with the dealer

Wow - that sucks. It will be interesting to see what the dealer does - please update.

If you were *really* within the speed limit, that sounds even worse than what most people have experienced.

couple more questions...
were you bouncing off the rev limiter or just driving 'briskly'?
manual or automatic?

Car is a Base Model w/Sport Package 6MT and ~1600 miles on the odometer. Downhill was obviously fine, but the climb back up was where the temps went to hell. It wasn't "bouncing" off the rev limiter, but was running 7200-7500 rpm before shifts in 85+ deg. low humidity weather.

As a side note, it also had the right front outside pad separate from the backing plate and scored the rotor pretty good too. New rotor and front pads will be forthcoming from the dealership.

This is only the first of what will be many runs on Skyline, other "mountain" roads and 100 miles/day of the notorious 680 Sunol Grade and 880 rush hour traffic in the SF Bay Area. If this continues to be a problem that is not solvable by Nissan's service department, it will trigger a lemon law claim.

Sometimes with a manual transmission, it is hard (for me at least!) to get off the gas between gears on an upshift... ie 1st to 2nd you press the clutch but don't lift the throttle... possible that you were running up the throttle between gears and putting it into redline? not saying this is your fault, just trying to understand all the contributing factors - all of which sound like normal driving conditions so far

SCCA Club Racing license holder from 1988.

yesterday we did our first socal 370 canyon run, almost 2 hrs of canyon driving
some cars are running at 250-260

my car stayed at 2 clicks obove 220

My first choice for an oil cooler is the ARC oil cooler as shown at one of sponsor's blogs: 370Z ARC Oil Cooler.

My second choice is being sold by another of our sponsor's: Central 20 Oil Cooler.

short and to the point ! love it... still, might be worth watching what happens between gears... this car tends to run up between em, even if your timing is perfect in other cars... humor me and watch next time... thanks

Fair enough. The only issue was when acclimating to the late disengagement and the factory 2 inch + "dead spot" at the bottom of the clutch pedal travel.

The clutch needs to be re-adjusted to eliminate almost all but a small portion of this "dead space".

I suspect this is your problem, not an actual defect in your driving style. All the manual VQ37HR's I've driven to date have the same problem.

I agree... I'm going to have my mech look at adjusting my clutch pedal dead zone and engagement points this week!

To test my theory, I'd really like know if the automatic transmission cars are overheating... going forward, please call out which transmission you all have... THANKS!

I haven't run my car as hard as you guys yet, so I can't really compare with you on overheating. I will say that in some respects the 7AT is also susceptible to driver error leading to hitting the rev limiter in the lower gears though. There's a very (very) tiny window for clicking that paddle at just the right time to run the gear out without bumping the limiter, and you have to account for the lag between hitting the paddle and the actual shift occurring.

I mentioned in another thread that the Z-Car Garage have hinted about oil temperature problems in their blog - Z-Car Blog

They updated their blog on April 15th with a youtube video of their trackday at Thunderhill Raceway (below). It all seems to be going well at first, but at around about 5min 50secs - well, see for yourself...

Chubbs you inspired me, next track day I'm recording my Z.

I'm actually impressed with how much time he got in before getting close to 300 degrees.

I guess that's when the Miatas start passing. lol

What the heck? Miatas and Minis passing so with s2k

I thought the same thing until I went to the blog site and saw that the other cars were running R compound tires and many were heavily modified. A modified MiniCooper S with R compound tires is nearly a jet powered go kart!

There's no way a stock 370Z on OEM tires could keep up with those things in the corners and depending on how much the Mini owner has done to his turbo/SC power plant, even in the straights...

Here's the actual blog post: http://www.zcarblog.com/2009/04/15/3...l-raceway.html

I used to have a turbo'd Miata - those things are NOT slow once you put a turbo on them. They're tiny, light, and rev like crazy too. 240-ish RWHP may not sound like much, but in a car that weighs 2100lbs..

You really need to be on a track with a Miata which has had a V8 transplant. I was at VIR a few years ago with one. It was amazing!

yup ppl who talk s#!t about miatas don't really have any say in the enthusiast world. Miatas are probably one of the most potent lil boogers once it's been tuned correctly. 2100 lbs, rwd, very tossable, etc. Miatas with f20c swap = gg.

Here in Tucson, AZ. it was 97 degrees. Just cruising at 3K rpm through town my oil temp reached 240 degrees. I remember seeing some people wondering what would happen when summer heat hit, so I figured I would post up what I saw.

FYI, before today cruising oil temp was usually around 220.

thanks for checking in... manual or auto ?... pushing it towards redline or just bumping around 5-6K ?

Manual. Shifting before 5K rpm. Mostly cruising with no stop lights.